Beauty And The Dragon
by SkyDragonRoar
Summary: Lucy Heartfilia, while auditioning for Fairy Tail Theatre Group, meets Natsu Dragneel, a young stage hand working there. After she is accepted and begins work for the Christmas show, friendship between them blossoms-but with some complicated characters involved, will it become something more, or will Lucy never get her fairy tale ending?


**A/N: Hello, minna! I'm back with ANOTHER Fairy Tail fanfiction! (Oh Kat-chan...you never learn...XD) In case anyone asks, worry not- I will update What We're Fighting For as SOON as I can! I got the idea for this when I saw Cats, the musical, recently and thought about how FUN it would be to have the Fairy Tail members as a theatre production! I have plenty more ideas and should be posting new stories quite soon. ^-^**

**Let me know what you think!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail!**

* * *

The blonde girl looked up at the building looming before her, taking a deep breath. She pulled her jacket further around her- it was late Novemeber now and getting colder every day. Lucy Heartfilia was not simply shivering from the cold, though- She was shivering from nerves, too. Today was the big day, the one she had counted off for weeks- the day she auditioned for the local theatre group.

It didn't sound like such a big deal, and Lucy was more interested in books, really, but she had wanted to take part in a big play since she was little and she had seen a flyer for Fairy Tail, the most infamous yet the best local theatre group there was. They were putting on a play near Christmas time and were holding auditions today, November 27th. If you were accepted, you were guaranteed a part in the show and and membership of the group, of course. Lucy waited a few more moments before finally pushing open the solid wooden doors in front of her with shaking hands, and stepping inside, the flyer clutched in her hands, which read:

**Fairy Tail Local Theatre Group:**

**Holding auditions for membership on Novemeber 27th.**

**Parts guaranteed for Christmas show.**

**Must do one of the following:**

**Sing, dance, or act out a scene.**

**If more information is needed, contact Erza Scarlet at ErzaTitania or at 1862356477.**

(A/N: I don't know about the area numbers or network numbers in Japan for phones so I just typed random numbers, ahaha...)

When Lucy had called the number and spoken to the woman in charge, Erza Scarlet, she had seemed very nice, but a tad, um, headstrong. And VERY serious about "The art of theatre", as she referred to it as. The blonde girl walked through the halls gingerly until she finally came upon the stage. It was low-set and made out of polished planks of wood. Heavy, velvet red curtains were drawn back on either side and a bright light shone in the center of the stage. Lucy gulped, thinking she might have to stand underneath it later. A good few people milled around, chatting idly or reciting lines to themselves, some sitting and fidgeting nervously. There was a table set right in front of the stage and behind it several rows of seats, reaching up into the very back of the building. At the table sat four people- A man with reddish-orange hair slicked back and a brown coat, grinning confidently, a woman with long, scarlet-red hair and striking brown eyes who Lucy could only assume was Miss Erza, a white-haired girl smiling brightly and chatting to Erza, and a tall, burly man frowning sullenly, spiky blonde hair atop his head. In the seats behind them sat a little, blue-haired girl with a yellow headband, a towering guy with long, spiky black hair and red eyes, whom the petite girl was talking to, a guy with orange, spiky hair and blue-tinted glasses, a tall guy with blue-black hair who was missing his shirt for some reason, a girl with wavy blue hair who was staring at shirtless-guy feverishly and blushing, a young girl with long blue hair in twintails, wearing a school uniform. It looked like she was the youngest person there. Oh, there was plenty more people, but Lucy had lost track of them all. She swallowed again, her throat dry, and took a seat in one of the rows of seats, smoothing down her skirt nervously. She thought that maybe she should read back on lines or something when Erza stood up, cleared her throat loudly, and the room fell silent. She pushed a pair of glasses up her nose and smiled, "Welcome, everyone. My name is Erza Scarlet and I run this little theatre here, in place of Makarov Dreyar, of course. He stops by freely but it has mostly been left up to me now. Anyway, today we're holding auditions for the Christmas show and of course, membership. Only five of you will be accepted, I'm afraid. One of our members will play the male lead and we'll be looking for the female lead among all of you."

Lucy's heart thumped in her chest- it would be wonderful if she got to play the female lead!

"Also, let me introduce you to some of our senior members who will be helping me judge the auditions today. This," She gestured to the reddish-orange haired man who stood up, raising his hand in greeting, "Is Gildarts Clive. His daughter, Cana, is one of our members."

"Nice to see so many fresh, young faces!" Gildarts said cheerfully, "I'll be looking forward to your auditions." He sat back down.

Erza gestured to the white-haired woman as she stood up and smiled brightly at all of them, "This is Mirajane Strauss."

"Hi, everyone!" Mirajane smiled brightly, "I'm Mirajane, but everyone around here just calls me Mira. I look forward to working with all of you."

Finally, Erza motioned for the blonde man to stand up. He did so, although Lucy couldn't help noticing his disposition was quite sullen. "This is Laxus Dreyar, the original owner's grandson."

"Hey." Laxus said, his face unsmiling, "I'm Laxus. Um, yeah. I'll be judging your auditions." And with that brief statement, he sat down heavily again.

"Ok," Erza continued, unfazed by Laxus's briefness, "Let's begin, shall we? Half of you please report backstage. After you all audition, there'll be a short break and then we'll watch the other half. You will all know by Friday whether you've received membership or not. Ok, can you all follow me?" She gestured to one half of the seats, and they rose, following her out a side door that must lead backstage. Lucy wasn't among them as she flopped back into her seat, breathing out deeply. She'd have to watch half the auditions, first. Should be interesting. Erza appeared on stage again, standing under the spotlight. So, Lucy would have to stand there later on.

"Ok," She started, half-adressing the people in front of her and half-adressing the people backstage, "Please come out one by one and state your name, age, and what you'll be doing for us." She stepped aside, motioning for the first person to come onstage.

A tiny, blue-haired girl, the one with the yellow headband that Lucy had seen earlier, bounced onstage cheerily, smiling. "Hi," She said brightly, "My name is Levy McGarden, and I'm 20 years old. I'll be dancing for you today." Music started playing and the small girl started her routine. She was quick, agile, and quite good. When she was done, the four judges consulted their clipboards, nodding to eachother.

"Thanks, Levy," Mirajane smiled, "That was very good. Ok, who's next?"

And it went on from there. The guy with long, black spiky hair and the red eyes sang a song and played guitar, the blue-haired girl and black-blue haired man acted out a scene from Romeo and Juliet, the dude with orange, spiky hair and blue-tinted glasses danced, (although Lucy secretly thought he wasn't that good.) and the blue-haired girl in the uniform, who seemed very shy at first, sang a song and was surprisingly good. All the time, Gildarts, Mirajane, Erza and Laxus were all jotting down notes rapidly on their clipboards. Finally, the first half of auditions ended and everyone was free to rest or talk for a while. Cups of tea and sandwiches were handed out, which Lucy accepted gratefully. She was starving. The blue-haired girl, Levy, if Lucy remembered, came and sat next to her, smiling and swinging her legs.

"Hi," She greeted cheerfully, "My name's Levy. What's yours?"

"I'm Lucy." Lucy smiled, "I saw your audition-you were really good!"

"Aha, thanks..." Levy blushed and smiled. "What are you planning on doing? You're up in the next half, right?"

"Yeah. I'm going to sing, I think." Lucy replied, taking another bite out of her sandwich.

"Cool!" Levy said, "I can't wait to hear you." She glanced over at the black-haired dude who sang and played guitar, who was gesturing for her to come over, "Ah, I'd better go. That's my friend Gajeel, who I convinced to come audition with me. See you around, Lucy!"

"Bye." Lucy smiled, raising a hand as Levy skipped off to Gajeel. She was so tiny and cute, and really friendly. If Lucy was going to get accepted, she hoped Levy would too.

The break was soon over and it was Lucy's turn to report backstage. She breathed deeply, nerves overcoming her once again. She had run over the lyrics hundreds of times in her head. She wasn't going to screw up. She wouldn't. She would get her place, just like she wanted. According to the list Erza had, she was up first. Oh dear. She walked out onstage nervously, her legs shaking. The bright spotlight glared fiercely down on her as she looked out at a group of peering faces. Mira smiled encouragingly from the judges table.

"Um, h-hi, everyone.." Lucy began, "I-I'm, um, my name is Lucy Heartfilia, and I'm 20 years old. I'm going to sing for you today, um, a song by Hatsune Miku, Hello How Are You. Um, I guess I'll begin?" Lucy took another deep breath, trying to stop her voice from shaking, and started to sing the song.

_Hello!  
I opened my window and whispered,  
How are you?  
Alone in my room, with no one.  
Morning!  
The morning has arrived, with a heavy downpour,  
Tick-tock,  
Someone please rewind my spring for me._

She kept going with the lyrics, trying to forget she was in a room full of people who were watching her. She imagined she was at home in front of her bedroom mirror, using her hairbrush as a microphone, singing away to herself happily as rain pounded the roof. She closed her eyes, losing herself in the song. Finally, when the lyrics were finished, she opened up her eyes and dared to look down. She sighed in relief when she saw no-one was frowning or wore a disapproving look on their face. In fact, some of them were smiling, and Erza and Mirajane were even nodding to eachother. Maybe she had done well, after all!

"Thank you, Lucy." Erza said, smiling at her, "That was very good. Ok, who's next?"

Lucy nodded in thanks and walked off stage, smiling giddily to herself. Erza had said she was very good! The audition had, thankfully, gone a lot smoother than she imagined. She was so caught up in a daze that she didn't notice the heavy ropes snaking around the floor, used to pull the curtains apart. Her foot became tangled in one and she tripped forward, shrieking-

"Whoa! Careful!"

Lucy hadn't fallen flat on her face as she had expected. Instead, strong arms were holding her up. She looked up into a man's face, who was smiling warmly down at her.

"Watch yourself there." He straightened back up, letting go of her. Lucy brushed herself off, smiling at him.

"Thanks for that," She said, smiling sheepishly, "I wasn't paying attention. My mistake." She looked at his face properly, realising he was quite handsome. He had spiky hair that was, if she wasn't mistaken, pink, and wide, onyx eyes. His skin was tanned, even though it was winter. He was tall, and looked lean and strong.

"No problem." He grinned again, "Hey..were you singing just there?"

Yeah, I was."

"Oh, so you're Lucy!" He exclaimed, "You were really good. I was listening back here. I'm Natsu Dragneel. I work as a stage hand here." He held out a hand and Lucy grasped it firmly, blushing.

"Thanks, Natsu," She smiled, "Nice meeting you. I'd better go now. Thanks again."

"No problem," He said, "I hope to see you around more, if you get accepted."

"Yeah, I hope so too. Bye." She waved as she continued walking back down the steps that lead to the front of the stage, taking her seat to watch the rest of the auditions. She smiled to herself. Natsu was a nice guy. Now, she just hoped she'd been good enough to get a part in the play here...

* * *

**A/N: First chapter officially finished! The idea of the Fairy Tail members in a theatre group wouldn't leave me alone, so here you go! I hope I handled Natsu and Lucy's first encounter well. This story will be NaLu all around, haha! Also, I'm putting up a poll on my profile regarding who Lucy's love rival should be in this story. Note that I'm planning to make whoever it is quite mean, so choose wisely! Please vote, it would be a great help! ^-^**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or the song, Hello How Are You! All rights go to their respective owners!**

**Remember, reviews are love! Until next time!**


End file.
